YMMV / Dave Chappelle

• Awesome Ego: His Equanimity special has a bit about this, Played for Laughs. Dave boasts that he’s so good at standup that he can write jokes in reverse, to the point where he can pick a random punchline out of a jar and make it hysterically funny. He pulls it off twice in the night. The punchline? "So I kicked her in the pussy."
• Critical Dissonance: On Rotten Tomatoes, two of his Netflix specials, Sticks and Stones and The Closer, were polarizing among critics for their Political Correctness Is Evil stance (most notably gender identity politics), but had plenty of fans among audiences.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Dave's bit on Oscar the Grouch being profiled/discriminated against, decades later, would be thematically revisited in a Joker-inspired parody by Saturday Night Live.
  • Dave accurately predicted that The History Channel would cover gang wars.
• Misaimed Fandom: Candace Owens, a conservative black reporter, expressed admiration for Chappelle's opposition to political correctness in anticipation of his first 2020 special 8:46. However, this special was explicitly left-leaning (Chappelle has supported Democrat nominees in the past) and supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement, thus proving Owens' and Chappelle's politics do not align too much. Like Bill Maher, he has since picked up a Periphery Demographic of right-leaning fans who are well aware that Dave is not explicitly conservative himself, but nevertheless respect him for standing up on issues like cancel culture and being willing to call out what they both see as extremist behavior on his own side.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Discussions about his 2021 special The Closer are likely to center around its inclusion of jokes about the LGBTQ+ community (in particular transgender people) and Chappelle expressing support for J. K. Rowling amid accusations of transphobia, which led to strong criticism from LGBTQ+ people and allies.

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